The Ifugao People
According to Ifugao mythology, Wigan and Bugan are the ancestors of the Ifugaos who had lived in a village called Kiyyangan (now Kiangan). They are believed to be children of deities in Kabunyan or the Skyworld. By some force of circumstance and with the consent of their father, Wigan and Bugan married each other and went to live in Daya or the Western world where they begot two boys and three girls. Years after, their descendants inhabited the Ifugao world. After the occurrence of a great flood, it is believed that only Kabigat and his sister Bugan survived. Eventually, they married each other and settled in Kiyyangan where they had many children.
Aside from the myth, there exist three other theories on the origin and migration of the Ifugaos – all concluded by prominent scholars on Cordillera studies. The first is that of H. Otley Beyer, as cited by Dulawan (2005) stating that, “the ancestors of the Ifugao belonged to the first wave of Malays who came to the Philippines from the southeastern part of the Asian continent many centuries ago.” Beyer claims that these ancestors occupied the area around Lingayen Gulf from where their descendants decided to move to the North. Upon reaching Bokod in Benguet, they traversed to Kayapa (now a municipality in Nueva Vizcaya) “where they settled and built the rice terraces.” Many years after, their descendants moved northeast to Ifugao, passing through Asipulo, Kiangan and Hingyon and finally settling in Banaue “where they began the construction of the first rice terraces in Ifugao” (12). Beyer claims that the rice terraces in Kayapa are older than those in Banaue which is why he believed that the descendants of the Ifugao ancestors migrated from Kayapa to Ifugao. This theory however, is criticized by other researchers because there is no concrete evidence of culture similarity between the people in Kayapa and the people in Banaue.
On the other hand, Felix Keesing (quoted in Dulawan 2005) theorized that, “the present-day Ifugao are descendants of a people who lived in Central Cagayan Valley.” Because the Spanish colonizers were taking over Cagayan and Isabela that time, some of the people fled to Nueva Vizcaya, and others went to the mountains in what is now Ifugao. Dulawan states that Keesing based his theory on the “discovery” of a terraced place near Carig (now Santiago City) where there are gabi plants. Since rice terraces are common in Ifugao, and the people there plant gabi, Keesing concluded that, “the fields and gabi plants found in Carig were abandoned by the Ifugao when they retreated farther into the mountains of Ifugao” (12). Dulawan however, comments that the practice of rice terracing is prominent in Southeast Asia, and that gabi is cultivated worldwide.
The third theory is concluded by Roy F. Barton (1969) in which he claims that, “Ifugao land was settled by migrations from various directions that displaced the aboriginal Negritos” (quoted in Dulawan 2005). According to him, there was a migration of Kankanaey across the Cordillera to the West which explains the “very close kinship between the Kankanai and Ifugao languages.” Other migrating groups which Barton identified include “the Ifugao of the Lamot Valley” speaking another different language from the Ifugaos, and the “Ifugaos of Lagawe” having a secret language for which only a few were able to converse. There were also the “Silipanes” who were rice cultivators. They are found in the eastern foothills and they have a “different religion and speak a different dialect from other Ifugaos,” including those from Mayoyao who have a different culture and preference (13).